WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday said he has no regrets about using the F-word to Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy – and in fact “felt better after I had done it.”

“Instead of having a substantive debate over important policy issues, [Leahy] had challenged my integrity, and I didn’t like that,” Cheney said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto.”

“Most of all, I didn’t like the fact that after [Leahy] had done so, then he wanted to act like, you know, everything’s peaches and cream. And I informed him of my view of his conduct in no uncertain terms. And as I say, I felt better afterwards.”

Leahy (D-Vt.) has been leading attacks on Cheney and accusing him of war profiteering to get Iraq contracts for Halliburton, a company that Cheney once headed.

Leahy approached Cheney, who is presiding officer of the Senate, after they’d posed for the 2004 official Senate photo. The two had words, ending with Cheney saying, “F- – – yourself.”

Cheney said he got huzzahs from Republicans, telling Fox, “I think a lot of my colleagues felt what I had said badly needed to be said, that it was long overdue.”

“I’m usually fairly calm . . . but I thought it was appropriate here.”